MY STAR. (PAGE 40.)

4. =angled spar=.  The Iceland spar has the power of polarizing light and producing great richness and variety of color.

11. =Saturn=.  The planet next beyond Jupiter; here chosen, perhaps, for its changing aspects.  See an encyclopaedia or dictionary.

This dainty love lyric is said to have been written with Mrs. Browning in mind.  It needs, however, no such narrow application for its interpretation.  It is the simple declaration of the lover that the loved one reveals to him qualities of soul not revealed to others.  Observe the “order of lyric progress” in speaking first of nature, then of the feelings.

EVELYN HOPE. (PAGE 41.)

The lover denies the evanescence of human love.  He implies that in some future time the love will reappear and be rewarded.  Browning’s optimism lays hold sometimes of the present, sometimes of the future, for the fulfilment of its hope.  Especially strong is his “sense of the continuity of life.”  “There shall never be one lost good,” he makes Abt Vogler say.  The charm of this poem is more, perhaps, in its tenderness of tone and purity of atmosphere than in its doctrine of optimism.

LOVE AMONG THE RUINS. (PAGE 43.)

This poem was written in Rome in the winter of 1853-1854.  The scene is the Roman Campagna.  The verse has a softness and a melody unusual in Browning.  Compare its structure with that of Holmes’s The Last Leaf.  Note the elements of pastoral peace and gentleness in the opening, and in the coloring of the scene.  What two scenes are brought into contrast?  Note how the scenes alternate throughout the poem, and how each scene is gradually developed according to the ordinary laws of description.  What ideals are thus compared?  What does the poem mean?

MISCONCEPTIONS. (PAGE 47.)

11. =Dalmatic=.  A robe worn by mediaeval kings on solemn occasions, and still worn by deacons at the mass in the Roman Catholic church.

The lyric order appears sharply developed here in the parallelism of the two stanzas.  Point out this parallelism of idea.  Does it fail at any point?  Note the chivalrous absence of reproach by the lover.  Observe the climax up to which each stanza leads, and the climax within the last line of each stanza.

NATURAL MAGIC. (PAGE 48.)

5. =Nautch=.  An Indian dancing-girl, to whom Browning ascribes the skill of a magician.

The poem celebrates the transforming and life-giving power of affection.  Note the abrupt and excited manner of utterance, and how the speaker begins in the midst of things.  He has already told his story once, when the poem opens.  Note also the parallelism of structure, as in Misconceptions, the climax in each stanza, and the echo in the last line of each.  Tell the story in the common order of prose narrative.